Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Romance Focused on Overcoming Fear

The Wedding Con by Janine Amesta

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Last week I sped-read through Love at First Flight, sinking into the Central Oregon setting and the lives of the Moreno family that Janine Amesta created. It spurred me to pick up the ARC I had of The Wedding Con and get to reading it immediately.  Where Love at First Flight focuses on the grief journeys of its leads, The Wedding Con focuses on fear. Naomi Moreno is the middle sister and had witnessed her father be suckered into get rich quick investment schemes via YouTube […]

One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Treasure

A Noble Madness: The Dark Side of Collecting from Antiquity to Now by James Delbourgo

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CBR17 Bingo: N – Re: the title. The obsessive collector in history has worn many faces – a magician, a scientist, a connoisseur, a madman – but whether they are a force for good or evil in their societies is a more complicated question. When I think of collectors I usually think of the modern kind who collects some specific category of kitsch because they like them, be it stuffed animals or porcelain figurines or Stephen King novels. As someone who dislikes clutter and has […]

“She writes that she will walk across the ocean to be with her lover. He sees this, not as a declaration of love, but as a statement of a single-mindedness so total that a kind of grandeur creeps into it.”

In Pursuit of Love: A Journey in the Footsteps of Obsession by Mark Bostridge

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CBR17 Bingo: I – Re: the title. Victor Hugo was the most famous writer in the world when his daughter, Adèle, left their home in Guernsey on a years-long mad pursuit of a former lover. Centuries later, author Mark Bostridge retraces her steps and tries to understand her obsession in the prism of his own life. I have not seen acclaimed 1975 film The Story of Adele H., so this was my first real acquaintance with the strange life of Adèle Hugo, whose story was […]

Wherever You Go, There You Are

The Killer Question by Janice Hallett

Kiss Her Goodbye by Lisa Gardner

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CBR17 Bingo: Migrant – Both books involve characters who move to places they expect no one knows them and try, with varying success, to rebuild themselves into new shapes. The Killer Question by Janice Hallett – 5 stars Sue and Mal run a perfectly average British pub with an above average weekly quiz night, but the arrival of a mysterious new team that dominates the competition and the discovery of a body in the nearby river sends their lives into a tailspin. This is my […]

“This is how it works, with people who wield abuse like a knife and convince us they’re cutting us with love.”

The Ones We Burn by Rebecca Mix

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CBR17 Bingo: O – The title starts with O. When Ranka is sent south to fulfill a treaty between humans and witches by wedding the crown prince, she goes only so that she can try to bring the system down from the inside. But as she gets to know Galen and his twin sister, the brilliant and beautiful Princess Aramis, she begins to realize that the truth about the conflict between their people may be different than what she’s always believed. What I really enjoyed […]

“Now you understand not every story shares the whole truth.”

The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez

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By about 10% into the book, I was reminded viscerally of The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. When reviewing that book I focused on the idea of there being a special power in taking a known story and envisioning it in a new way. I’m firmly of the opinion that approaching storytelling that way – taking what has existed previously and viewing it another way – can lead to some inventive storytelling. There are any number of ways to approach it, and The Maiden […]



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